Newsletter January 2012
Happy New Year to all our readers! As I write, between the St Beornwald’s day Mozart by Candlelight and Music at Wotton The Choice of Hercules events, it seems there is much to look back upon and forward to.
Looking back
Since our April newsletter we have enjoyed a Friends’ evening in Bampton; our debut on London’s South Bank with the UK première of Gluck’s Il Parnaso confuso; Cimarosa’s The Italian Girl in London at Bampton, Buxton, Westonbirt and, indeed, London; both staged and concert performances of Handel’s oratorio The Choice of Hercules; and the aforementioned all-Mozart concert. A somewhat busy season!
The Friends’ event was a presentation, by artistic director Jeremy Gray, entitled How to make an opera and gave the audience an insight into the preparations that went on, throughout the year, to make the summer productions what they are. It took place, once again, at Pippa Harris and Richard McBrien’s lovely Cobb House, with views of the church, and we are as ever enormously grateful to them for their warm hospitality. Our Friends’ events are always most convivial – in addition to the annual event there are receptions at most performances and invitations to occasional special events. People feel part of a big family and we do our best to get to know and welcome all. If you would like to join us, please contact Claire McGlashan (see Contact Us page) for further details.
The Purcell Room, on London’s South Bank, is not large enough for staged performances but gave us the opportunity to give a concert version of Gluck’s Il Parnaso confuso, a delicious piece for four sopranos (it was composed for four Austrian arch-duchesses) lasting about an hour. In the first half of the concert Benjamin Bayl and the Bampton Classical Players gave us two concert arias and a symphony by the young Mozart. The Purcell Room is an ideally-sized venue for this sort of performance and it is hoped that we might be able to return there as repertory and funding allow.
On, then, to The Italian Girl in London, our main production of the season. An invitation to perform for the third time at the Buxton Festival, (we were last there in 2007, with Benda’s Romeo and Juliet), led to the design and construction of a superbly seedy London hotel, with designer Nigel Hook relishing several suitable 1980s-bad taste ideas. The story is too crazy to recall, but the roles were wonderfully realised by Kim Sheehan, Caryl Hughes, Adam Tunnicliffe, Nicholas Merryweather and Robert Winslade Anderson. Caryl and Adam were making their Bampton debuts and how superbly they did too! Thomas Blunt, assistant with the LPO amongst other things, made his superb conducting debut with us and all in all we had a wonderful time. It met with excellent reviews. At Bampton the rain just-about kept off; at Westonbirt we experimented with an indoor performance which set up what can best be described as a lively debate afterwards – more on this below! We also took the production, as a semi-staged version, to St John’s Smith Square in London in mid-September.
This year was our second to see a smaller autumn production, this time Handel’s gorgeous The Choice of Hercules. Described as a ‘musical interlude’, it is for four soloists and chorus; our version had the four soloists (Lisa Wilson, Amanda Pitt, with Owen Willetts and James Geer making their Bampton debuts) singing the choruses too, in which they were joined by baritone Mark Saberton. Christopher Bucknall made his debut with us conducting our period-instrument ensemble, the Bampton Classical Players; the staging was by John Arthur. The production played in two country houses as well as the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, again an ideal period venue for the programme.
Our December venture, Mozart by Candlelight proved a sell-out and was highly successful as both a musical and a local celebratory venture. Clearly audiences enjoy listening to music they know – we shouldn’t forget this! – and, combined with the convivial atmosphere of a packed church, the best-ever mulled wine from Jacky Allinson and friends and some superb playing from members of the Orchestra of Bampton Classical Opera, it was a memorable evening. Amanda Pitt sang concert arias and also the well-known motet Exsultate Jubilate; the conductor was artistic director Gilly French. Our regular leader, Mark Wilson, suffered a serious shoulder injury only days before being due to play and we had an, er, interesting time trying to replace him at such short notice, but thanks to cellist Babette Lichtenstein we did, and we are very glad to have discovered James Widden in the process!
Looking ahead
By now you should be aware of our plans until the end of summer 2012 – if not, take a quick glance at the Current Season page. This, remarkably, will be our twentieth season in the Deanery at Bampton. By way of summary, we are thrilled to be invited back to Buxton for the second year in succession, and even more delighted that the Festival has recognised the great interest of our 2010 production of Marcos Portugal’s The Marriage of Figaro – we are reviving this for three performances. It will be an interesting logistical puzzle to rehearse two productions simultaneously! – the second being our main home production, Grétry’s L’amant jaloux. On discovering that this was, at only 70 minutes, somewhat short we spent some time looking for a suitable companion piece, settling on the 30-minute Blaise le savietier by Philidor, a composer equally famous for his mastery at chess. More information about the double-bill will be posted on the website later in the spring.
Before all that is another visit to London’s Wigmore Hall, on 9 February, for a concert centred on Handel’s Apollo and Dafne, in our new English translation. Martene Grimson and Nicholas Merryweather sing the title roles. We always enjoy our visits to this prestigious venue and would love to see more supporters there.
We are also currently planning both a Friends’ event and a fundraising Life and Times evening, both for the spring, and will upload details when we have them.
Westonbirt – what next?
As many of you will know Westonbirt has been an interesting case for discussion recently, along the lines of whether we should be performing indoors (in the Orangery Theatre) or out. Passionate arguments can be made for both…
The pro-indoors line was that, by 8pm when the opera ends, it is almost always cold outside – this is the end of August, after all. From a company point of view it is also difficult to rehearse outside, with both sun and wind proving difficult to manage, especially with the orchestra, and if we are rained off then staging etc, which has been paid for, is not used. It seemed that all the facilities required were indoors, plus all-important warmth, and we assumed that most of the audience would sigh with relieved agreement.
We weren’t quite prepared for the vociferous nature of the pro-outdoors line. In the end the response to the questionnaires seemed about equally split, but the pro-outdoors line had, we felt, the stronger arguments. There are undeniable acoustic problems with an indoor staging, as the orchestra inside the Orangery comes across somewhat loud even when playing down; some suggested the venue made it feel as if it were a school event (I’m not sure we agree with that one ourselves!). The strongest argument was that one can hear quality opera indoors at any time whereas the atmosphere and special quality of an open-air performance is almost unique to Bampton Classical Opera.
We have come up with a possible compromise for 2012, which is to experiment with performing in the recently-restored Italian Garden. This is situated a little distant from the main house, but in a more sheltered location and we think the acoustics should be good. It is an extraordinarily beautiful setting and will suit the Grétry well, ending as it does with a garden scene. In future we may choose the venue according to the demands of the opera, but it will be interesting to see how successful the Italian Garden proves, and we will welcome your views.
Support us
And so, finally, to the usual plea. Fundraising from charitable trusts is becoming harder and harder, and from public bodies is virtually impossible to obtain, so more and more we look to enlightened individuals to help further the Company’s aims. We are particularly grateful to our Corinthian Friends without whom the company would probably have folded some time ago, but every contribution makes a difference. Please contact us if you can help in any way.
